This bulletin will summarize some of the notable regulatory priorities recently communicated by the Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration (collectively “DOL”) and the Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (collectively “IRS”) and provide some important Q4 defined contribution (DC) compliance reminders for plan sponsors.

Key Takeaways

• Regulatory agendas published: The DOL and IRS have published their Spring 2025 regulatory agendas, signaling upcoming rulemakings and activities that will impact DC plans.
• DOL priorities: Focus areas include finalizing new fiduciary and ESG rules, enhancing ERISA disclosures, and issuing guidance for Pooled Employer Plans. These priorities are in addition to the directives contained in Executive Order 14330, “Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors,” issued on August 7, 2025. For details refer to the associated Bulletin.
• IRS priorities: Key projects involve final regulations for Roth catch-up contributions, automatic enrollment, required minimum distributions and plan forfeiture practices.
• SECURE 2.0 Act impact: Many regulatory changes are driven by SECURE 2.0, affecting plan operations, participant notices and compliance requirements.
• Compliance deadlines: Plan sponsors should prepare for year-end deadlines, including Form 5500 filings, participant notices, required minimum distributions and plan amendments.
• Action steps: Sponsors and advisers should coordinate with recordkeepers and third-party administrators to ensure timely compliance and data submission.

Spring Unified Regulatory Agenda

On September 4, 2025, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) published its Spring 2025 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (Unified Agenda). The Unified Agenda is a semi-annual compilation of regulatory and deregulatory actions under development across Executive Branch agencies and includes rules and regulations at various stages. Its purpose is to provide transparency into agency regulatory planning and provides a glimpse of what might be coming over the next 12 months and beyond. With that said, the time frames listed are estimates and often extend well beyond what the Unified Agenda provides. For further detail and the complete list of priorities, the DOL Agenda can be accessed here and the IRS Agenda can be accessed here.

DOL agenda

The DOL is responsible for the enforcement of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), as amended for the protection of plan participants and beneficiaries. ERISA’s provisions govern fiduciary conduct, provide for requirements for plan reporting to the DOL and require disclosures to plan participants and beneficiaries. Under the leadership of Daniel Aronowitz, who was confirmed as the Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) on September 18, 2025, the following are some of the projects scheduled for the coming months that address each of these areas.

Final rules set for “re-do”

Two regulatory projects listed in the Final Rule stage and categorized as “economically significant” are titled “Investment Advice Fiduciary Under ERISA” (a/k/a the “Fiduciary Rule”) and “Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights” (a/k/a the “ESG Rule”). Both regulations are the subject of ongoing litigation. The Agenda indicates that each of these regulatory actions are “in response to Executive Oder 14289 entitled Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Deregulatory Initiative.” The timing indicated for issuance of these final rules is May of 2026.

ERISA retirement plan reporting and disclosures

In accordance with Section 319 of the SECURE 2.0 Act, the DOL will work to find ways to improve the effectiveness of ERISA’s required participant disclosures, balanced with associated costs to plans, plan participants and beneficiaries. This process will begin with the DOL’s engagement with stakeholders including participant representatives, plan sponsors, retirement plan service and investment providers, to explore options for more understandable and effective disclosures. According to the DOL Agenda, “… the review would explore whether, and how, the content, design and delivery of such disclosures may be re-imagined, improved, consolidated, standardized, and simplified to enhance participants’ disclosure experiences, promote greater participant engagement and improve outcomes.”

Beyond this review, the Agenda also lists several active rulemakings that impact DC plan sponsors. These include:

• Paper benefit statements and e-delivery amendments: the Agenda shows DOL’s intent to move forward with proposed rules to implement the SECURE 2.0 requirement that DC participants receive at least one paper statement per year, unless they affirmatively opt out. These rules are intended to align with existing electronic disclosure safe harbors with SECURE 2.0 requirements.
• SECURE 2.0 reporting and disclosure implementation: This “umbrella” rulemaking (still in early prerule stages) is expected to cover specific provisions related to ERISA required notices (e.g., 404a-5 participant fee disclosures, QDIA notices, summary plan descriptions, SMMs, blackout notices) including reduced notices for unenrolled participants, notice consolidation authority permitting combined notices, and clarifications on content and timing of disclosures required under SECURE 2.0.

The DOL previously issued Requests for Information (RFIs) in August 2023 and in January 2024 to provide the public with an opportunity to participate in the regulatory process and will continue to build a record to support next steps.

Pooled employer plans

Section 101 of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act of 2019 created a new type of multiple employer plan (MEP) known as a “Pooled Employer Plan” or “PEP.” PEPs allow unrelated employers to participate in a single defined contribution plan. This new opportunity for employers, particularly at the smaller end of the market, was one of the SECURE Act’s provisions designed to increase workplace DC plan sponsorship. PEPs were first able to be established effective January 1, 2021. The SECURE Act authorized the DOL to issue guidance as it deemed necessary to implement and operate PEPs. Until recently, no such guidance has been issued and the PEP market has developed based on the reasonable good faith interpretation of Section 101 of the SECURE Act. On July 29, 2025, the DOL issued a combination of guidance and an RFI from industry stakeholders to better understand the various PEP operating models and determine whether additional guidance, including a possible fiduciary safe harbor would be helpful for Pooled Plan Providers sponsoring PEPs as well as adopting employers. The RFI will also help the DOL to complete the SECURE Act-mandated study of the PEP industry within 5 years following enactment. Upon completion of the study, DOL must report findings and legislative recommendations to Congress. Comments on the RFI were due on September 29, 2025.

IRS agenda

The Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service are jointly responsible for the issuance of regulations that govern the tax qualification of DC and other retirement plans. The following are some of the projects scheduled for the coming months.

SECURE 2.0 mandatory Roth catch-up contribution rules

The newly published IRS Agenda includes the issuance of final regulations to implement the changes to Section 414(v) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) made by the SECURE 2.0 Act. Proposed regulations published in the Federal Register on January 13, 2025, addressed both the increased catch-up contribution amounts for participants aged 60, 61, 62 and 63 as well as the mandatory Roth catch-up contribution requirement applicable to participants with FICA wages exceeding $145,000 in the prior year. Treasury and the IRS received comments on the proposed rule, and a public hearing was held on April 7, 2025. Despite the Agenda’s December 2025 estimate, final regulations were published in the Federal Register on September 16, 2025, leaving the age 60-63 provisions in the proposed rule largely unchanged and providing clarification and welcomed flexibility in the implementation of the mandatory Roth catch-up requirements. Here are a few highlights:

• The effective date for mandatory Roth catch-up contributions remains January 1, 2026; however, the provisions of the final regulations will not take effect until plan years beginning on and after January 1, 2027. In the meantime, reasonable, good faith interpretation of the rules is permitted.
• In determining whether a participant has exceeded the FICA wage threshold, employers have flexibility, if desired, to aggregate wages received from affiliates or in cases where a common paymaster is used.
• For plans that allow a participant to make a separate catch-up contribution election for a portion of elective deferrals each pay period, these amounts may continue to be treated as Roth, even if they are ultimately not catch-up contributions because applicable limits are not exceeded.
• Deemed elections treat any participant making a catch-up contribution election as having elected Roth if they are later determined to be subject to the mandate. This can occur either when pre-tax deferrals reach the 402(g) limit or when combined pre-tax and Roth deferrals reach the 402(g) limit. Deemed elections are required in order to use the correction methods under the regulations.
• Errors can be corrected through the end of the year following the year of occurrence.
• Errors not exceeding $250, or as result of a corrected W-2 issued after the correction deadline do not need to be corrected.

SECURE 2.0 mandatory automatic enrollment rules

The SECURE 2.0 Act added a new Code section 414A which generally requires that both 401(k) and 403(b) plans established after December 29, 2022, include an eligible automatic contribution arrangement (EACA) as well as automatic escalation provisions. Proposed regulations were issued in January and also included guidance regarding EACAs. The IRS Agenda includes a project that would finalize these regulations. The timetable indicated for this project is December of 2025.

SECURE 2.0 updates to required minimum distribution rules

Following the SECURE Act changes to the required minimum distribution (RMD) rules, the SECURE 2.0 Act made additional changes. Final, as well as proposed regulations were issued in July of 2024. The proposed regulations address SECURE 2.0 changes including, but not limited to spousal elections, partial annuity payments, distributions from designated Roth accounts and corrective distributions of missed RMD payments. The IRS Agenda indicates the intent to finalize the proposed regulations in May of 2026.

SECURE Act changes to the Unified Plan Rule for MEPs

The SECURE Act included changes to the Unified Plan Rule (often referred to as the “one bad apple rule”) applicable to MEPs, including PEPs. The changes allow a MEP sponsor to preserve the tax-qualified status of the entire MEP in cases where one adopting employer fails to satisfy plan qualification requirements by following certain notice requirements and spinning that employer out of the MEP and into a single employer plan. Proposed regulations were issued in March of 2022. The IRS Agenda indicates the intent to finalize in May of 2026.

Allocation of forfeitures in qualified retirement plans

Since the IRS released proposed regulations in February of 2023, over seventy class action lawsuits have been filed challenging the practices of plan sponsors and administrators in handling plan forfeitures. Despite well-established practices supported by both IRS and DOL, the challenges continue. Final regulations will bring further support to plan fiduciaries regarding these practices including permissible uses and timing of allocation in accordance with plan provisions. The IRS Agenda indicates the intent to finalize these regulations in May of 2026.

Plan sponsor Q4 reminders

As DOL and IRS continue to address the above priorities, along with numerous others, plan sponsors and their advisors should be planning for the following deadlines, to the extent applicable, as year-end approaches.¹ Since not all plans are the same, and additional requirements may apply, it is important that plan sponsors and their advisors coordinate with recordkeepers and third-party administrators to ensure continued regulatory compliance.

Conclusion

As the DOL and IRS advance their agendas, DC plan sponsors must remain vigilant in tracking new rules and guidance, particularly those stemming from the SECURE 2.0 Act and ongoing DOL initiatives. Proactive planning and coordination with service providers are essential to meet statutory requirements, maintain plan tax qualification and uphold fiduciary protections. Staying informed about regulatory changes and upcoming deadlines will help sponsors avoid compliance pitfalls and continue to serve plan participants.

¹ Calendar-year plans ending December 31, 2025.

2717720f-9d69-11f0-b3e9-f53779bf2b19